Dental Services Take To The Road During Program

September 18, 1985|By Rebecca Theim, Staff Writer

Betty Hollis considered the three-hour wait worth it.

A Boynton Beach resident and mother of three, Hollis, a health support aid at A.G. Holley State Hospital, got off work Tuesday when a friend told her the mobile dental clinic sponsored by the Florida Baptist Convention`s Home Mission Board was in Boynton Beach.

``When you got three children to feed, you don`t have $35 to have a tooth pulled,`` said Hollis, as she waited in the air-conditioned bus parked outside the Boynton Beach Child Care Center, at 909 NE Third Ave.

Hollis is one of about 200 residents who will receive free dental care at the mobile clinic during its two-week stay in Palm Beach County, according to Amos Hawkins, director of the Brotherhood of the Palm Lake Baptist Association and coordinator of this year`s dental program.

The association, with about 25,000 members from 30 Southern Baptist churches in the county, has sponsored the mobile dental clinic, in cooperation with the Migrant Council, the Community Action Council, the county Health Department and three county dental associations for a decade.

Some 85 people, including 40 dentists from throughout the county, will volunteer their time and efforts during the program, Hawkins said.

Dentists working out of the mobile clinic have already seen patients in Jupiter, Riviera Beach, Lake Worth, Delray Beach and Gaines Park in West Palm Beach. The bus will be at two sites in Boynton Beach before being returned to the state association for use in another county.

Boynton Beach resident Mary Davis sat nervously as she waited for her appointment.

``It`s been a while since I`ve been to a dentist,`` she said shyly.

Less than a half-hour later, she emerged from behind the curtain, smiling but not talking. The dentist had just extracted four of her teeth.

``I think it`s a very worthwhile project,`` said Dr. Sasser Watson after he saw Davis.

The mobile dental clinic will be at the South Palm Beach County Migrant Coordinating Council on U.S. 441, just south of Boynton Beach Boulevard, today through Friday.

Hours are 1 to 9 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to noon and 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. to noon Friday.

Patients must meet low-income classifications established by the program. People are seen on a first-come, first-served basis.